


what we can't change

by illrunwithyou



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda graphic?, Misunderstood Yurio, but theyre just friends, hurt yurio, injured yurio, just yurio getting the love and recognition he deserves, loving yuuko, no relationships - Freeform, sprained ankle, yurio is called yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 14:25:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19275151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illrunwithyou/pseuds/illrunwithyou
Summary: Sometimes, Yuri Plisetsky needs love too.Or the one where Yuri sprains his ankle and Yuuko gets to understand him more.





	what we can't change

**Author's Note:**

> This fic includes minor graphic descriptions about a sprained ankle. Please don't read if it makes you uncomfortable!
> 
> This is a late fic but I found it recently and wanted to share it. Sorry for any mistakes because it's unedited.

"Not good enough, not good enough, not good enough." Yuri chanted in his head as the icy wind from the skating arena blew past him, numbing his face. Once again, unconsciously practicing his complicated figure skating routine, he grimaced at the thought of him competing. The last competition hadn't gone as he planned, as he had only gotten a silver. It was currently 12 o'clock in the morning and he was still up late skating, and emerged in his self-deprecating thoughts. 

The days following a competition, when he was known to disappear, he would lock himself inside a tiny skating rink just outside of the bustling city and skate. There, all worries were thrown out the window and the only reason he skated was for himself, not for yakov, or for the gold medal, or even for the prize that his family depended on. He could rid himself of the throbbing pain in his heart, throw the mask he usually wore to the ground and skate to his heart's content and finally express the emotions a fifteen year old child usually could. 

A piercing clap cut the silence from one side of the dark room, then another followed, and another, and another. Shocked, Yuri was immediately broken out of his trance and peered over his shoulder to look as his visitor. It was Yuuko Nishigori, childhood friend of Yuuri. Pulling his protective mask back on, he scowled at her and bit out, "what are you doing here?!" 

Smiling, the wife and mother of three quickly strides over to Yuri's side of the rink, "I brought you food!" 

Unfaltering, Yuri steadily reiterated, "what are you doing here?!"

"I came to find you," Yuri was taken aback by the reply, "I was worried. You weren't in the news for months following the Grand Pix, where you were only on the news for about a day." 

"I don't need your worry. I'm fine." Yuri finally straightened himself off the wall and skated over to the far side, away from Yuuko. 

"No, you are indeed not fine. Look at you! Skinny as a pole. Skinnier than last time!" 

Ignoring her previous remark, Yuri began his skating routine. With a brush of his arms here, and a complex spin there, Yuuko was deeply entranced by the way Yuri handled the air, embracing, stroking it as if it was fragile. Soon, the only sound in the rink was the clink of metal hitting ice and the icy whoosh of wind. Deeply immersed in her own thoughts, tears started rolling down her chubby cheeks as her brain started over analyzing his moves and his skating routine. Unconsciously, she let out a loud sob, before quickly clapping her hand over her mouth. 

But it was too late. Yuri was startled and he was in mid-jump. In the air, time seemed to slow around Yuri, into something that he could touch and mold with his fingers. He flailed his arms and started falling as soon as his upward acceleration ran out. Time seemed to go back to normal as he clunked onto the ground, a searing pain shooting up his right leg, from his ankle to his hip. 

Prolonging his time on the ground as the pain slowly faded away, Yuri made the mistake of helping himself onto his feet. The red hot burning pain returned as his right leg crumpled beneath all his weight and he fell, prepared to embrace the cold, hard ice. Except he didn't. Yuuko had ran up behind him as a searing headache caused by all the pain in his lower body tapped out a steady rhythm in his eardrums, making him unable to pick up anything. 

"Oh my gosh Yuri, are you okay?! I'm so sorry. Please be okay. Please don't become crippled. I only wanted to watch you. I don't want to force you to give up your dream of becoming an ice skating champion. Oh my gosh. I need to get you to the hospital!" In her midst of shock, she was spewing 150 words per minute and thinking at an even faster rate. 

At the word hospital, Yuri finally showed some sign that he was conscious, "No. It's going to be okay. Just bring me outside the rink and I can solve this." Almost missing the quiet whispers, Yuuko nodded and carefully scooped him up and followed through with his request. Gently laying him down on the cold tile floor of the ice rink, Yuuko sat to the side, alert, in case he needed any help. 

Too preoccupied with his own pain to notice, Yuri set to work. He positioned himself correctly, like he'd done the last 8 times, and asked Yuuko for a cloth. Then, stuffing th cloth into his mouth, he positioned his hands on either side of his hip joint and twisted. The pain returned, this time stronger than ever and Yuri bit down in the cloth with tears stinging his eyes. No matter how many times he relocates his hip joint, no matter how many times he tells himself it won't hurt, the pain is always too much for his fifteen year old body to handle. The pain sends him sprawling on the floor, gasping for air, for painkillers, for anything to numb his hip. 

Yuuko watched with tears in her eyes. What did she know at fifteen? She had skated for fun, just for the sake of it, she'd never learned to deal with the painful side of it. Even now, she was sure couldn't set a hip bone with as much determination and as professionally as this blonde, pretty, fifteen year old. He had been through too much pain, too much wear and tear in his short life. He doesn't skate for the fun of it. He skates for the awards and with those awards, come harsh training, and with that harsh training, comes injuries upon injuries upon injuries. 

Sobbing tears of his own, Yuri hands the cloth, wet with slobber, back to Yuuko, looking extremely apologetic but of course, who could be mad at a boy who had just been through hell and back? Gently helping himself to his feet, Yuri hobbled back to the medicine cabinet. Yuuko quickly brushed off her tears and ran back to where he was, helping him get down the ointment at which he had been pointing. 

He slowly lowered himself back onto the floor and gently eased off his right ice skate, revealing a swollen ankle that almost made Yuuko vomit. The condition of his foot brought tears to her eyes as well. It was pale, skinny and soft. It looked like a foot that would only be seen in the movies, if it weren't for the bruises and blisters littering the length of the foot. The injuries were very obviously from Yuri trying to break in to his new skates and that served as a cruel reminder that Yuri was only fifteen. 

Unaffected by Yuuko's thoughts, Yuri calmly and slowly massaged the ointment into his continuously-swelling ankle, trying to suppress a wince at tender parts. Next, Yuri expertly ripped the sleeve off of his thin long-sleeved jacket and secured it around his ankle. 

"Sorry you had to witness that," he commented so softly she almost didn't hear him. 

"No, I'M sorry I distracted you in the middle of a leap and caused you to injure yourself," 

"Apology accepted....I should be going by now...." Without another word, Yuri lifted himself up and started packing all his stuff. 

"No. Since I was the one who caused you all this pain, I will be carrying you home," she finally gathered up all her courage to say. 

"Are you sure? This place is about three miles from my house." 

"Well, if your going to limp the three miles in pain. I might as well help you out." 

Before letting him reply, she scooped him up easily, slung his bag over her shoulder, and marched off. 

He hadn't been lying; it was exactly three miles away. She'd dropped him off right outside of his door, despite her protests that she should at least go in. 

When she went back to Japan, she'd changed drastically the guilt of injuring Yuri that she tried to ignore, piled onto her, adding more and more each day she went through. Her personality had been affected, as noted by her husband and many other people. She just couldn't stop thinking about how her trip to Russia brought a new light onto the Russian Yuri. She previously thought that he was just a Russian brat who bullied others for the fun of it as he excelled in his ice skating skills. She never knew someone who, at that age, could relocate joints and endure injuries of his severity without losing his conscious mind. She knew Yuuri could certainly never do that, even now; viktor probably could, but definitely not at that age. That's why, when viktor and Yuuri were talking trash about Yuri, Yuuko couldn't help to explode. 

"Hey Yuuri, competition is coming up, how are you feeling?"

"Hey viktor, overall okay but I'm very worried about Yuri. He's so good and I'm just trash I'm really scared that I'll disappoint you and and and-"

"Hey," Viktor grabbed Yuuri's chin and stroked it, softly, "I will never think of you as a failure. You could completely bomb this competition and I would still love you to bits. And Yurio?" He dropped his voice lower, but despite the significant drop in volume, Yuuko could still hear every word loud and crisp, "he's nothing but a fifteen-year-old spoiled brat who has been given everything in life and knows nothing about skating or its hardships." 

"Excuse me?!" Yuuko couldn't help her outburst but since it was already out, she wasn't going to stop, "he's the most hardworking boy I know! Sorry if this seems rude but how much exactly do you know about him? How much?"

Viktor looked up in amusement, "how much I know? I trained with him for years. I believe the real question here is how much do YOU know?"

Yuuko bit back her insults as her mind reeled, _how much DOES she actually know? It's not like they were close friends or anything._

Yuuko shook these thoughts out of her head before continuing, "I know more than you ever had. I know that he's a strong boy who patches up his own injuries. He's only mean to hide the loneliness in his heart. He's been through so much, and all on his own too. He had to deal with the poverty living with his grandfather left him with. He knows that everyone regards him as the Russian punk so he's taken it upon himself to live up to that name. He...he....he's just a regular boy, like you guys were at that age so could you guys just please stop...." 

She trailed off as she realized that they weren't listening to her ramble. They didn't care. They didn't care about Yuri. No one in the ice skating world did. Not even many people in the real world did, and it was then Yuuko steeled her heart as she decided she was going to be one of the people to care about him.


End file.
